Friday, July 13, 2012

Maxime Fortunus Returns to Texas Stars for Fourth Year

(Credit: Steven Christy)

Despite all signs initially pointing to no, the Stars have re-signed Maxime Fortunus on a one year, two-way deal. Fortunus is the club's all-time leader in defenseman games played, having started with the club in its inaugural season of 2009-10.

Fortunus will be a huge veteran presence in the locker room for the Texas Stars, along with Tyler Sloan. The right-handed shot out of Quebec had six goals and fourteen assists last season. With the signing, Texas now has either 7 or 8 defensemen for their roster (depending on whether you want to count Brenden Dillon)

Oleksiak-Dillon
Sloan-Labrie
Nemeth-Benn
Coyle-Fortunus

Note that my pairings here are not "real".

I'll admit that my initial leanings on this were incorrect. Rumour was that Fortunus was not happy with how the season went last year and was going to entertain other offers. Perhaps he did and wasn't happy with what he saw. I think the changes over the summer should show that the organization is committed to a culture change. I would also assume that when the details show up on Capgeek that he got a nice pay bump at the AHL level, commensurate with his veteran experience.

Why carry Coyle? He is a reach to be in the AHL anyway. Drop him and Labrie to the RCHL and pick up another solid defensive player, preferable a guy who can run the power play like Bryan Rodney or Brendan Bell. Labrie might be a worthwhile emergency call up but with two years counting this on his contract he will never get a sniff in Dallas considering what all is in front of him.

I'm sure they will keep Labrie because the Stars have a "let's just get by" mentality, for that matter they might keep Coyle. But there is no good reason to in the long or short term IMO. I like bringing Max back but unfortunately we have had no big splash signings which isn't much of a recipe for success after having the second worst record in the league. The Stars do what I hate most of all about the minor leagues, they pimp the prospects as the lifesavers when in fact all teams pretty much even out in that regard. It's easier (and lazier as well a cheaper) for the Texas Stars to sit and just take what is given instead of doing the hard work and signing some impact vets (like Hershey signing Disalvatore, Taffe, and Beaudoin) on AHL contracts. Our equivalants will be something like Hedden and Shultz...doesn't quite make sense but there it is. But in the end it will reflect in the standings again.

I agree that Texas has needed a better balance of top-flight AHL talent with their prospects. If you look at the first season, that was what got Texas to the Calder Cup (Stafford, Hutchinson, Jancevski, Beaudoin).

Scott White has said that he wants that top vet forward a la Giroux, Krog, Haydar, Sterling, but I think the budget for the Dallas club has limited him. Petersen may be that answer this season. He scored 70+ points in 05-06 in the AHL.

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